Chapter XLII: Act III: Scene 2

Gregory of Tours has more than once made use of _Argis_ to express a ship generally. With respect to _Ragozine_, it has been contended in a former note, page 89, that this name ought not to have been introduced in the discussion of the present subject.

Mr. Steevens remarks that both ancient and modern editors have hitherto been content to read "burghers _on_ the flood;" and, on the authority of a line in which we have "burghers _of a city_," he has substituted "burghers _of_ the flood." He might have been less inclined to this new reading, had he recollected that the "signiors and rich burghers _on_ the flood" are the Venetians, who may well be said to live _on_ the sea. It would be difficult to discover who are the signiors and burghers _of_ the flood, unless they be whales and porpoises.

In calling argosies _the pageants of the sea_, Shakspeare alludes to those enormous machines, in the shapes of castles, dragons, ships, giants, &c., that were drawn about the streets in the ancient shows or pageants, and which often constituted the most important part of them.

SCENE 1. Page 399.

SALAN. Now, by _two-headed Janus_.

Dr. Warburton's note may well be spared in all future editions. If Shakspeare have shown a knowledge of the antique, which he might have obtained from his dictionary at school, the Doctor has, unluckily, on this occasion proved himself less profound in it than Shakspeare, or he would not have ventured to assert that the heads of Janus were those of Pan and Bacchus, Saturn and Apollo, &c. It is presumed that these heads will continue to perplex the learned for many generations.

SCENE 2. Page 410.

POR. If a _throstle_ sing.

Notwithstanding the apparent difference in opinion between Messrs. Steevens and Malone respecting this bird, they are both right. The throstle is only a variety of the thrush, as will be seen by consulting Mr. Pennant's Account of English birds. In _The new general history of birds_, 1745, 12mo, there is an account of "the song-thrush, or throstle;" and see Randle Holme's _Academy of armory_, book ii. ch. 12, no. lxxiii.

SCENE 3. Page 413.

Enter SHYLOCK.

His stage dress should be _a scarlet hat lined with black taffeta_. This is the manner in which the Jews of Venice were formerly distinguished. See Saint Didier _Histoire de Venise_. In the year 1581 they wore _red caps_ for distinction's sake, as appears from Hakluyt's _Voyages_, p. 179, edit. 1589. Lord Verulam, in his Essay on usury, speaking of the witty invectives that men have made against usury, states one of them to be "that usurers should have _orange-tawny bonnets_, because they do _Judaize_."

SCENE 3. Page 414.

SHY. He lends out money gratis, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.

"It is almost incredyble what gaine the Venetians receive by the usury of the Jewes, both pryvately and in common. For in everye citee the Jewes kepe open shops of usurie, taking gaiges of ordinarie for xv in the hundred by the yere; and if at the yeres ende the gaige be not redemed, it is forfeite, or at the least dooen away to a great disadvantage: by reason whereof the Jewes are out of measure wealthie in those parties."--Thomas's _Historye of Italye_, 1561, 4to, fo. 77.

SCENE 3. Page 416.

SHY. He stuck them up before the _fulsome_ ewes.

_Fulsome_ has, doubtless, the same signification as the preceding epithet _rank_, the physical reason for its application being very generally known. "Ικτιδος _pellis_. Proverbium apud Germanos in vilissimum quodque et maxime _fœtidum_ scortum. Nam Ictis, id est sylvestris mustela cum graviter exarserit, male olet." Erasmi _Adagia_. Spenser makes one of his shepherds speak thus of a kid:

"The blossoms of lust to bud did beginne
And spring forth _ranckly_ under his chinne."

_Fulsome_ is from the Gothic _fuls_, i. e. _foul_, _fœtid_. That it sometimes had another root, viz. _full_, is manifest from the line in Golding's _Ovid_, whose expression "fulsome dugs" is in the original "_pleno_ ubere," but is of no service on the present occasion, though quoted by Mr. Steevens.

SCENE 3. Page 418.

SHY. About my money and my _usances_.

Mr. Steevens asserts that _use_ and _usance_ anciently signified _usury_, but both his quotations show the contrary. Mr. Ritson very properly asks whether Mr. Steevens is not mistaken; and Mr. Reed, maintaining that he is right, adduces a passage which _proves_ him to be _wrong_. A gentleman, says Wylson, borrowed 1000 pounds, running still upon _usury_ and _double usury_. "The merchants termyng it _usance_ and _double usance_, by _a more clenly name_," i. e. _interest_, till he owed the usurer five thousand pounds, &c. The sense was obscured by the omission of an important comma after the word _name_. Mr. Malone's note was quite adequate to the purpose of explanation.

SCENE 3. Page 421.

SHY. ... seal me there
Your single bond; and in _a merry sport_,
If you repay me not, &c.

Thus in the ballad of _Gernutus_:

"But we will have _a merry jeast_
For to be talked long;
You shall make me _a bond_, quoth he.
That shall be large and strong."